Homebound seniors living alone often slip through health system’s cracksNone
Former UCF coach Gus Malzahn inks multi-year deal to be FSU OCDwaraka Tirumala Rao, Director General of Police in Andhra Pradesh, reported a notable 5.7% decline in overall crime, offset by a sharp rise in cybercrime over the past year. Addressing the media, Rao highlighted that cybercrime, property crimes, and narcotics cases have been on the rise. Despite this, the police force achieved significant success in crime detection, heavily utilizing technology such as AI and drones. The number of registered cybercrime cases jumped to 916 in 2024, a 34% increase from the previous year, resulting in substantial financial losses across the state. Rao underscored the importance of continued technology investment, including AI-assisted investigation and extensive CCTV networks, to enhance policing efforts. He stressed that the technology-driven approach has already yielded results, notably in traffic management and solving highly complex cases. (With inputs from agencies.)Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, of the Social Democratic Party is leading centre-right opposition leader Elena Lasconi in the first round of the presidential election according to exit polls. Romanians have voted in the first round of a presidential election on Sunday. The frontrunners for the largely ceremonial role going into Sunday's vote had been Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), and George Simion of the far-right nationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians. Exit polls however showed Ciolacu with 25% of the vote while the centre-right former journalist turned small-town mayor Elena Lasconi with 18%. Calin Georgescu and Simion — the two hard-right candidates — were at 16% and 15% of the vote. Thirteen candidates were competing, with the top two advancing to a second-round vote on December 8 to determine who would run the European Union and NATO member country. Support for Ukraine played a role Analysts had predicted that social democrat Ciolacu would win a second round against Simion, who had been his main contender in opinion polls ahead of the vote, but he seems to trail Ciolacu hoped to win over voters with his pledge of ensuring "stability." Ciolacu's government has thrown its support behind neighboring Ukraine following the Russian invasion, while Romania has taken on an increasingly important role within NATO. Lasconi, a former journalist and the leader of Save Romania Union party, or USR, said she sees corruption as one of the biggest problems Romania faces and that she supports increased defense spending and continued aid to Ukraine. Simion, on the other hand, opposes military aid to Ukraine, is an ardent fan of Donald Trump, and wants to impose a system modeled on Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government in Italy. The far-right leader has come under fire for allegations that he met with Russian spies, a claim he has denied. The data does not include the votes of hundreds of thousands of Romanians who live abroad, who can still influence the result. Ciolacu told the AP news agency that as president, his priority would be "to convince Romanians to stay or return home" to help rebuild the country. Whoever wins the second round will replace the current president, Klaus Iohannis, a liberal who has been a firm supporter of Ukraine. He has held the role since 2014. kb,ss/ab (AP, Reuters)
Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman and World Series MVP Freddie Freeman underwent surgery on Thursday to address the badly sprained right ankle that hampered him throughout the postseason, the club said. He is expected to be able to participate in baseball activities in spring training, the team added. Dr. Kenneth Jung performed the procedure. Advertisement Freeman underwent debridement and had loose bodies removed from his ankle, which he initially injured in September on the night the Dodgers clinched the NL West. Freeman missed the final three games of the regular season but returned in time for Game 1 of the National League Division Series despite clearly not being 100 percent. He played through the injury — along with damage to his ribs he suffered during the ramp-up to the postseason — throughout October, including during a torrid World Series stretch that saw him hit a walk-off grand slam in Game 1 (the first in World Series history) and earn MVP honors. Hear ALL the amazing calls of Freddie Freeman's historic grand slam that ended Game 1 of the #WorldSeries 🎙️ pic.twitter.com/1pbV4ox2ON — MLB (@MLB) October 26, 2024 Each day, he rode to the ballpark driven by his father, Fred, to receive hours of treatment just to get on the field. “I was driving him in and staying for six hours and watching him get pushed on and prodded. And for a week doing that, it was beyond what any two weeks should do,” Fred Freeman said after the World Series . “He’s tougher than I am, that’s for sure. ‘Cause I don’t know any other person who could have done that. Maybe Shohei (Ohtani).” Freeman became the first player ever to hit a home run in each of the first four games of a single World Series and matched a World Series record with 12 RBIs. It etched him permanently into Dodgers franchise lore and helped him win his second title — he was part of the Atlanta Braves team that vanquished the Dodgers as part of their championship run in 2021. The 35-year-old former MVP endured one of the most difficult seasons of his career in 2024, missing time midseason when his youngest son, Maximus, was temporarily paralyzed due to complications from Guillain-Barré Syndrome, a rare neurological disorder. He remained productive when on the field nonetheless, putting together an .854 OPS in 147 games. (Photo: Alex Slitz / Getty Images)
STONY BROOK (3-2) Field 2-7 0-0 4, Brantley 2-6 0-0 5, Gonzalez 4-18 1-2 9, King 2-4 0-0 4, Ware 0-6 0-0 0, Filien 2-3 2-2 6, Moreno 1-2 0-0 2, Oliver 1-6 2-2 4, Totals 14-52 5-6 34
TALLINN, Estonia — As police raided the home of a gay couple in the Belarusian capital of Minsk and brutally beat them, the officers didn't hide that the crackdown was aligned to similar moves in neighboring Russia. The students, Andrei and Sasha, said security forces demanded that they unlock their smartphones and surrender the names of “gays in Minsk and Moscow.” “They slammed our heads against the door frame, threatened to report us to the university and said that this was just the beginning," said Andrei, 20, who like other gay and transgender Belarusians interviewed by The Associated Press insisted on being identified only by his first name because of safety concerns. “They wanted to expose an ‘underground network’ of gay people in Belarus, following the example of Russia,” he said of the autumn raid. "They openly told us that if it is banned in Russia, then it should be banned in Belarus too.” Belarus decriminalized homosexuality in 1994 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but the deeply conservative country under authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko doesn’t recognize same-sex marriages, and there are no laws protecting LGBTQ+ rights. Get the latest breaking news as it happens. By clicking Sign up, you agree to our privacy policy . Russian President Vladimir Putin adopted repressive laws curtailing LGBTQ+ rights in recent years, and close ally Belarus is poised to follow suit, proposing legislation to ban “gay propaganda.” While still to be defined in Belarus, the Russian version bans any endorsement of LGBTQ+ activities and nontraditional sexual relations. But even before the measure is drafted, life has gotten worse for the LGBTQ+ community in Belarus, rights advocates say. Marat, a transgender man who fled Belarus and wanted to be identified only by his first name over concerns for his safety, poses in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Oct. 10, 2024. Credit: AP They say 32 people were detained and beaten in seven cities in the last three months, including 10 transgender or nonbinary individuals and activists. Some were released after questioning, fined and allowed to emigrate, they say, while several remain in custody, facing charges of “disseminating pornography” and up to four years in prison. More people probably have been detained but might be afraid to contact advocates, according to LGBTQ+ rights group TG House Belarus. Lukashenko “uses repressions against the LGBTQ+ community in order to gain some kind of praise from Russian authorities and shore up support among conservative residents of Belarus,” said the group's coordinator, Alisa Sarmant. “To a large extent, it’s a carbon copy of what is happening in Russia, but in Belarus all these discriminatory practices take on uglier and harsher forms,” Sarmant said. Alisa Sarmant, coordinator of the LGBTQ+ rights group TG House Belarus, right, poses for photo in Warsaw, Poland, March 25, 2023. Credit: AP Moscow has close ties with Minsk, using Belarusian territory as a springboard for the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Last year, the Russian Supreme Court effectively outlawed LGBTQ+ activism, designating “the international LGBT movement” as an extremist group. “We will also need to take similar measures,” said Natalya Kochanova, Lukashenko’s closest adviser and speaker of the upper chamber of parliament. “We have family values, traditions we pass from generation to generation -– traditions of family, Orthodox Christianity,” she said, echoing the Kremlin line. After Russia banned gender transitioning last year, transgender individuals in Belarus began having problems, even though the procedures are not forbidden. According to Sarmant, the government this year rejected over 80% of those seeking official authorization for gender-affirming procedures and changing their gender marker in official documents. By comparison, 10%-15% were rejected in 2020, she said. Among other issues, she lists “catastrophic shortages” of hormonal treatments, humiliating medical procedures and prosecutions on political grounds. LGBTQ+ activists participated in mass protests that engulfed Belarus in 2020 after Lukashenko won a sixth term in an election the opposition and the West criticized as rigged. Authorities responded with a brutal crackdown, arresting about 65,000 people over the next four years. There are about 1,300 political prisoners in Belarus, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski. Many imprisoned opposition leaders and activists have spent more than a year in complete isolation, without medical assistance. As the crackdown widens, LGBTQ+ people are leaving Belarus, seeking asylum abroad. Tania, a 39-year-old transgender woman, told AP she was arrested twice for following opposition sites that were outlawed as extremist and for supporting Ukraine, adding that she was beaten and subjected to electric shocks in custody. She eventually fled the country. During the final raid of her apartment, security forces broke her tooth and two ribs, jailed her for 12 days and ordered her to repent on camera, she said. “Abuse behind bars continued day and night,” she said. “I was humiliated. They tried to shove the taser into my rectum or put it against my genitals. ... In a country where terror reigns, you either agree with the government's line, or have little chance of surviving without access to hormonal treatment.” Marat, a 37-year-old transgender man, told AP that authorities demanded last year that he detransition and change his documents to restore the gender marker he was assigned at birth. By that time, he said he had “pumped-up muscles and had grown a beard." “I couldn't believe that the doctors are demanding to bring everything back to the way it was and this absurdity is happening in the 21st century,” he said, adding that he tried to contest it but eventually fled to France with his four children. Lukashenko, who has run Belarus with an iron first for three decades, has publicly mocked homosexuals. After Germany's openly gay foreign minister in 2012 called him “the last dictator in Europe,” Lukashenko replied, “Better to be a dictator than gay.” All independent LGBTQ+ groups have been shut down in Belarus, security forces regularly raid Minsk nightclubs where underground parties are held, and advocates say the KGB blackmails members of the community into cooperating. “Intimidation, arrests and blackmail have been used in Belarus for years to create a so-called ‘LGBTQ+ database’ and declare an entire social group dangerous,” said Pavel Sapelka of the Viasna Center, the country’s most prominent rights group. In April, the Culture Ministry expanded its definition of pornography to include “nontraditional relations,” meaning anyone possessing such material can face criminal prosecution and up to four years in prison. “Belarus must abolish these outrageous amendments and stop the cynical persecution of LGBTQ+ people,” said Anastasiia Kruope, assistant researcher for Europe and Central Asia with Human Rights Watch. Rights advocates say LGBTQ+ people in Belarus continue to face stigmatization in society, noting a high suicide rate in the community. “The state’s policy has a particularly strong impact on young LGBT+ people, who have been living for four years in the conditions of an artificially created ‘sterile’ space, a Russian agenda and the constant broadcast of hate speech,” according to a report last month by the rights group Justice Initiative. The legislation being prepared ahead of next month's presidential election seeks to punish anyone promoting “nontraditional sexual relations, gender change (or) pedophilia.” TG House Belarus began a petition drive against the legislation, collecting 33,000 signatures. Sarmant suggests the recent raids were “revenge for this campaign in order for everyone to hide, get scared, and — best of all -– keep silent.” Andrei and Sasha, whose home was raided, said if the bill becomes law, they would leave Minsk rather than “wait for a prison term.”
Homebound seniors living alone often slip through health system’s cracksIsraeli airstrikes killed a hospital director at his home in northeastern Lebanon and six others, while at least five paramedics were killed by Israeli strikes in the country's south on Friday, Lebanon's Health Ministry said. The United Nations reported heavy clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon. Four Italian peacekeepers were lightly wounded when a rocket, likely fired by Hezbollah, hit their base, the U.N. said. A full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah erupted in September after nearly a year of lower-intensity conflict. More than 3,640 people have been killed in Lebanon and 15,350 wounded, the majority following Israel’s escalation and ground invasion, the Health Ministry said Friday. In Gaza, Israeli strikes hit Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of the few hospitals still partially operating in the northernmost part of the territory, wounding six medical staff and damaging its generator and oxygen systems, the hospital director said Friday. More than 44,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip, the Health Ministry said. It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but it has said that more than half of the fatalities are women and children. Israel launched the war in Gaza after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250 . Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead. Here’s the Latest: BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike killed the director of a university hospital and six others at his home in northeastern Lebanon, state media said. The strike targeted Dr. Ali Allam’s house near Dar Al-Amal Hospital, the largest health center in Baalbek-Hermel province, which has provided vital health services amid Israel's campaign of airstrikes, the Health Ministry said. State-run media reported that the strike came without warning. The ministry described his death as a “great loss,” and provincial governor Bachir Khodr said in a post on X that, “Mr. Allam was one of the best citizens of Baalbek.” In two separate episodes on Friday, Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon killed five paramedics with Hezbollah's medical arm, the Health Ministry said, describing it as “war crime.” The militant group provides extensive social services, including running schools and health clinics. In a report published Friday, the World Health Organization said nearly half of all attacks on health care in Lebanon since Oct. 7, 2023, have resulted in fatalities. “This is a higher percentage than in any active conflict today across the globe,” WHO said. In Lebanon, 226 health workers and patients were killed and 199 were injured between Oct. 7, 2023, and Nov. 18, 2024, the report said. The Health Ministry said Friday that 3,645 people have been killed in nearly 14 months of war between Hezbollah and Israel, while 15,356 were wounded, the majority following Israel’s escalation in late September. The death count includes 692 women and 231 children. DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes hit Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of the few hospitals still partially operating in the northernmost part of Gaza, wounding six medical staff and damaging its generator and oxygen systems, its director said Friday. Hossam Abu Safiya said the strikes before dawn Friday hit the entrance of the emergency unit as well as in the hospital courtyard. He said two members of the nursing staff suffered critical injuries. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Abu Safiya said the strikes caused damage to the functioning of the generator and disrupted oxygen supplies. The hospital is currently treating 85 wounded, 14 children in the pediatric ward and four newborns in the neonatal unit, he said. During the past month, Kamal Adwan Hospital has been hit several times, was put under siege and was raided by Israeli troops, who are waging a heavy offensive in the nearby Jabaliya refugee camp and towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya. The Israeli military says it detained Hamas fighters hiding in the hospital, a claim its staff denies. UNITED NATIONS – Two rockets hit a headquarters of the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, injuring four Italian peacekeepers, the United Nations says. U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the rockets were likely launched by Hezbollah militants or by affiliated groups Friday, impacting a bunker and a logistics area in the southwest headquarters at Chamaa. One of the structures that was hit caught fire, and the blaze was swiftly put out by U.N. staff, he said. According to Italy’s Defense Ministry, some glass shattered due to the explosion, hitting the four soldiers. Dujarric said the four injured peacekeepers were receiving treatment at the medical facility of the mission, known as UNIFIL. “Thankfully, none of the injuries are life-threatening,” he said. Italy’s Defense Minister Guido Crosetto called the attack on the UNIFIL base “intolerable.” He reiterated that the Italian contingent remains in southern Lebanon “to offer a window of opportunity for peace, and cannot become hostage to militia attacks.” Dujarric said Friday’s attack was the third on Chamaa in a week and came amid heavy shelling and ground skirmishes in the Chamaa and Naqoura areas in recent days. UNIFIL’s main headquarters is in Naqoura. Friday’s attack follows a rocket attack on a UNIFIL base east of the village of Ramyah on Tuesday that injured four peacekeepers from Ghana. Dujarric said UNIFIL strongly urges Hezbollah and its affiliates and Israel to avoid fighting near its positions, which are supposed to be protected. “We remind all parties that any attack against peacekeepers constitutes a serious violation of international law” and the U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, he said. BEIRUT — Israeli airstrikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs and the southern port city of Tyre on Friday, after the Israeli army issued several evacuation warnings saying it is targeting Hezbollah sites. The strikes in Beirut came dangerously close to central Beirut and Christian neighborhoods. One strike hit a building housing a gym and medical and beauty clinics, located just meters (yards) from a Lebanese army base. “What is there in the building to target? This attack they carried out on us in this building is a criminal and vile act,” resident Hassan Najdi told The Associated Press. “Because if their intention is targeting Hezbollah, this building has nothing to do with Hezbollah.” Najdi said he purchased an apartment in the building last year but had not yet moved in. He allowed a displaced family to move in and urgently asked them to evacuate after receiving the Israeli warning. The blasts sent plumes of smoke into the air and shattered glass in the vicinity. No casualties have been reported, but the strikes caused damage to nearby infrastructure and a key road connecting central Beirut to its southern suburbs. “We remain steadfast,” said Ali Daher, an employee at a mall facing the targeted building. “Everything that is lost can be replaced, and whatever is destroyed can be rebuilt in (no time).” In Tyre city, the Israeli military conducted multiple airstrikes after a series of warnings, claiming the targets belonged to Hezbollah’s Aziz unit, accusing it of firing projectiles into Israel. The Israeli military carried out other airstrikes across Lebanon, many without warnings, as heavy fighting between Israeli troops and Hezbollah in villages along the Lebanon-Israel border intensified. ROME — Italy said Friday it plans to discuss the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court over the Israel-Hamas war when it hosts Group of Seven foreign ministers next week. Premier Giorgia Meloni insisted that one point remained clear for Italy: “There can be no equivalence between the responsibilities of the state of Israel and the terrorist organization of Hamas.” Italy is a founding member of the court and hosted the 1998 Rome conference that gave birth to it. But Meloni’s right-wing government has been a strong supporter of Israel after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, while also providing humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza. In a statement Friday, Meloni said Italy would study the reasonings behind the decision to issue arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister and Hamas’ military chief. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Italy respects the ICC and supports it. “But at the same time we are also convinced that the court must have a judicial role, and should not take up a political role.” Tajani will host G7 foreign ministers Monday and Tuesday outside Rome for the final meeting of the Italian G7 presidency. “As far as decisions are concerned, we will take them together with our allies,” Tajani said. During the G7 meetings, “we will talk about this with my allies there, and we will see what to do next.” Another member of the governing coalition, the outspoken Transport Minister Matteo Salvini was more defiant in supporting Israel. “If Netanyahu comes to Italy he will be welcomed,” Salvini was quoted by Italian media as saying. This item has been updated to correct that Salvini spoke of a potential Netanyahu visit to Italy, not Israel. ROME — Four Italian soldiers were slightly injured after two exploding rockets hit the United Nations' peacekeeping mission base on Friday in Chamaa in southern Lebanon, Italy's defense ministry said. Initial information suggested that two rockets hit a bunker and a room of the mission base, damaging the surrounding infrastructure, the ministry said. Shattered glass hit the four soldiers. The incident was the latest in which UN peacekeeping posts have been hit since Israel began its ground invasion of Lebanon on Oct. 1, leaving a number of peacekeepers wounded. Defence Minister Guido Crosetto called Friday's attack “intolerable.” He said he will try to speak to the new Israeli Defense Minister to ask him “to avoid using the UNIFIL bases as a shield.” Crosetto said the conditions of the four Italian soldiers “did not cause concern.” He reiterated that the Italian contingent remains in southern Lebanon “to offer a window of opportunity for peace and cannot become hostage to militia attacks.” Italy’s Premier Giorgia Meloni on Friday said she learned about the new attack with “deep indignation and concern.” Meloni reiterated that “such attacks are unacceptable,” renewing her appeal for the parties on the ground “to guarantee, at all times, the safety of UNIFIL soldiers and to collaborate to quickly identify those responsible.” GENEVA — The World Health Organization says nearly half of the attacks on health care in Lebanon have been deadly since the Middle East conflict erupted in October last year, the highest such rate anywhere in the world. The U.N. health agency says 65 out of 137, or 47%, of recorded “attacks on health care” in Lebanon over that time period have proven fatal to at least one person, and often many more. WHO’s running global tally counts attacks, whether deliberate or not, that affect places like hospitals, clinics, medical transport, and warehouses for medical supplies, as well as medics, doctors, nurses and the patients they treat. Nearly half of attacks on health care in Lebanon since last October and the majority of deaths occurred since an intensified Israeli military campaign began against Hezbollah militants in the country two months ago. The health agency said 226 health workers and patients have been killed and 199 injured in Lebanon between Oct. 7, 2023 and this Monday. JERUSALEM — Israel’s new defense minister said Friday that he would stop issuing warrants to arrest West Bank settlers or hold them without charge or trial — a largely symbolic move that rights groups said risks emboldening settler violence in the Israeli-occupied territory. Israel Katz called the arrest warrants “severe” and said issuing them was “inappropriate” as Palestinian militant attacks on settlers in the territory grow more frequent. He said settlers could be “brought to justice” in other ways. The move protects Israeli settlers from being held in “administrative detention,” a shadowy form of incarceration where people are held without charge or trial. Settlers are rarely arrested in the West Bank, where settler violence against Palestinians has spiraled since the outbreak of the war Oct. 7. Katz’s decision was celebrated by far-right coalition allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. National Security Minister and settler firebrand Itamar Ben-Gvir applauded Katz and called the move a “correction of many years of mistreatment” and “justice for those who love the land.” Since Oct. 7, 2023, violence toward Palestinians by Israeli settlers has soared to new heights, displacing at least 19 entire Palestinian communities, according to Israeli rights group Peace Now. In that time, attacks by Palestinian militants on settlers and within Israel have also grown more common. An increasing number of Palestinians have been placed in administrative detention. Israel holds 3,443 administrative detainees in prison, according to data from the Israeli Prison Service, reported by rights group Hamoked. That figure stood around 1,200 just before the start of the war. The vast majority of them are Palestinian, with only a handful at any given time Israeli Jews, said Jessica Montell, the director of Hamoked. “All of these detentions without charge or trial are illegitimate, but to declare that this measure will only be used against Palestinians...is to explicitly entrench another form of ethnic discrimination,” said Montell. BERLIN — A German official has suggested that his country would be reluctant to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court. The ICC’s warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant put Germany, a staunch ally of Israel, in an awkward position. The government said in a statement Friday that it is one of the ICC’s biggest supporters, but “at the same time, it is a consequence of German history that unique relations and a great responsibility connect us with Israel.” The government said it takes note of the arrest warrants and that “we will examine conscientiously the domestic steps.” It said that any further steps would only be an issue if a visit by Netanyahu or Gallant were “foreseeable.” Government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit was pressed repeatedly at a regular news conference on whether it would be conceivable to arrest an Israeli prime minister. He replied: "It’s hard for me to imagine that we would carry out arrests in Germany on this basis.” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Friday refused to comment on the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others, saying that the court's rulings are “insignificant” for Russia, which doesn’t recognizes the court’s jurisdiction. The ICC last year issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and a number of other top Russian officials, accusing them of war crimes in Ukraine. The Kremlin has brushed off the warrants, saying that in Moscow’s eyes they’re “null and void.” Asked if the ICC warrants for Netanyahu and others can help resolve the tensions in the Middle East, Peskov said: “Well, in general, the actions of the ICC are unlikely to help anything. That’s the first thing. And secondly, we don’t see any point in commenting on this in any way, because for us these rulings are insignificant.” DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Large crowds of displaced people crammed themselves in front of a bakery in the Gaza Strip for the second day in a row, desperate to get their share of bread after bakeries closed for five days due to a flour shortage and the lack of aid. “I am a 61-year-old man. This is the third day that I have come to Zadna Bakery and I still cannot get bread ... I have children to feed,” said Majdi Yaghi, a displaced man from Gaza City. The price of a small bag of pita bread increased to $16 by Friday, a stark increase from about 80 cents last month. A bag of pasta now costs $4 and a small bag of sugar costs nearly $14. That has left many Palestinian families surviving on one meal a day and reliant on charitable kitchens to survive. In Khan Younis, women and children lined up at the al-Dalu charitable kitchen for bulgur, the only food available at the makeshift charity. One of the workers there, Anas al-Dalu, told the AP that they cook ten pots every day of either rice, beans, or bulgur. But that hardly fills the need for the thousands of people displaced in the area. “The charity here is in a difficult situation. It is a drop in the ocean, and there is no aid or charities. There is nothing," said Nour Kanani, a displaced man from Khan Younis. “It is a crisis in every sense of the word. There is no flour, no charities, and no food.” BEIRUT — Israeli troops fought fierce battles with Hezbollah fighters on Friday in different areas in south Lebanon, including a coastal town that is home to the headquarters of U.N. peacekeepers. A spokesperson for the U.N. peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL told The Associated Press that they are monitoring “heavy clashes” in the coastal town of Naqoura and the village of Chamaa to the northeast. UNIFIL’s headquarters are located in Naqoura in Lebanon’s southern edge close to the border with Israel. “We are aware of heavy shelling in the vicinity of our bases,” UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said. Asked if the peacekeepers and staff at the headquarters are safe, Tenenti said: “Yes for the moment.” Several UNIFIL posts have been hit since Israel began its ground invasion of Lebanon on Oct. 1, leaving a number of peacekeepers wounded.
